


changes.

by turtle_bean



Series: trans peter parker ficlets. [2]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Acceptance, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Awesome Avengers, Awesome Natasha Romanov, Awesome Tony Stark, BAMF Peter Parker, Background Relationships, Bisexual Tony Stark, Body Dysphoria, Coming Out, Cookies, Domestic Avengers, Dysphoria, FTM Peter Parker, Family, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Ficlet, Ficlet Collection, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Gender Dysphoria, Haircuts, Happy Peter Parker, Kid Fic, Kid Peter Parker, LGBTQ Character, LGBTQ Themes, Light Angst, Menstruation, Minor Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers, Minor Stucky, Name Changes, Natasha Romanov Is Not A Robot, Natasha Romanov Is a Good Bro, Nonbinary Character, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Not Canon Compliant, Not Captain America: The Winter Soldier Compliant, One Shot, Parent Tony Stark, Periods, Peter Parker Gets a Hug, Peter Parker Has Anxiety, Peter Parker Has a Family, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter Parker is Tony Stark's Biological Child, Peter Parker isn't Spider-Man, Pronoun Experimentation, Protective Avengers, Protective Natasha Romanov, Protective Tony Stark, Self-Acceptance, Short One Shot, Social Media, Social Transitioning, Supportive Avengers, Team as Family, Texting, The Avengers Are Good Bros, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Is a Good Bro, Tony Stark is Good With Kids, Trans Character, Trans Male Character, Trans Male Peter Parker, Trans Peter Parker, Transitioning, Wordcount: 1.000-5.000, a bit - Freeform, dont fucking ask me why, dude what the fuck all of my tags just got deleted, i mean tony met peter when he was born, kind of, no beta we die like gladiators, nonbinary lila barton, peter parker is a c h i l d, this is fluffy and cute and sfgkjlsahfkjasf, this is so much longer than it was supposed to be, well he hasn't been bitten yet at least
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-14 10:10:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29540790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/turtle_bean/pseuds/turtle_bean
Summary: Tony thought for a second before responding. "Do you think that maybe your gender is what feels wrong?"Penny immediately sat up straight, staring at Tony. "C-Could it?"--or, tony helps peter accept himself.ft: trans peter parker, a biodad au, kid!peter, and mama bear natasha romanov.
Relationships: Minor or Background Relationship(s), Peter Parker & Avengers Team, Peter Parker & Natasha Romanov, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: trans peter parker ficlets. [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2164743
Comments: 35
Kudos: 243





	changes.

**Author's Note:**

> possible tw: periods + mentions of dysphoria

Penelope Mary Stark, better known to her friends and family as Penny, was a twelve-year-old menace. The girl jumped into the elevator and said, "FRIDAY, please take me to Dad."

"Are you sure you wish to go there? Boss is currently in a meeting."

"Yes please, thank you, FRIDAY!"

When Penny arrived on the floor, she ran into the meeting room, and Tony immediately grinned, while the shareholders exchanged bewildered looks. One such shareholder, who Penny remembered her father referring to as a "damn asshole," said: "Excuse me, Mr. Stark, but who exactly is this?"

"My daughter," Tony said coldly. "Now, if you'd excuse me, I have more important things to attend to."

Pepper cut in. "What Tony _means_ to say is that, while he'd like to be at this meeting, he has to go help his daughter."

The "damn asshole" spoke again: "How come we're only hearing about this now? We should have known that Tony had a daughter!"

"I'm sorry, but I don't remember you investing in my personal life as well as _my_ company," Tony said, a warning in his tone. Then, directed to Penny, "Hey, bambina, let's go." Tony picked Penny up, wrapping her around his midsection, much to Penny's annoyance.

" _Dad_ , put me down! I'm not a baby!" Penny screamed as she fidgeted in her father's grip. The pair left the meeting room, and Tony set Penny down in the elevator.

"Thank you for rescuing me, Penny, though I'm sure we'll both hear an earful from Pepper later."

Penny shrugged. "Worth it. What's for dinner today?"

"I think that Steve made his famous meatballs."

"Yes!" Penny cheered, as she cuddled into her father. Penny had always been a Daddy's Girl through-and-through. Granted, she had never met her mother, as the woman hadn't wanted a child, but she loved Tony more than anything, and she simply adored hanging out with him.

"Boss, I believe that dinner is ready."

"Thanks, FRI," Tony said, his knees creaking as he stood up from the sofa, Penny following him.

They soon arrived at the dinner table, and both of them inhaled the delicious aroma. Steve smiled at the pair as he set their places. "Sit down, we're just getting started. Is Pepper coming?"

"Nah, she's still at the meeting that Pen rescued me from," Tony said, tussling Penny's hair.

"Hey, Penny, who's your favorite aunt/uncle?" Clint called.

Penny smirked at Clint and said, "Pepper."

"Yeah, Pepper's everyone's favorite, obviously, I meant besides her."

"Then Nat."

Nat winked at Penny and shoved Clint playfully, while the latter pouted into his spaghetti. A few minutes into dinner, Penny excused herself to use the bathroom. After 15 minutes, Tony began worrying.

"Do you think she's okay?" Tony asked, pushing his food aside.

"She's almost a teenager," said Sam. "Maybe she just wanted space."

Tony had a bad feeling, though, so he decided to check in with FRIDAY. "Hey, FRI, is everything alright with Penny?"

"Penny appears to be in distress," came the reply, and Tony immediately got up.

"Tony," Nat said, putting a hand on Tony's arm. "Let me handle this."

"She's my kid."

"She loves you, Tony, but there are some things that kids don't want to talk to their parents about."

"Yeah, okay, but what if she's hurt?"

"I promise, if anything's wrong, I'll alert you right away. I care about Penny, too, Tony."

Tony stared at her and found complete sincerity, so he nodded his permission, leaving the table to distract himself from his worries in his lab.

\--

Penny cried as she stared at the red stain on her underwear. Why did this have to happen to her? It all felt so wrong, everything about it. Just as she was about to start panicking even more, FRIDAY said: "Penny, Ms. Romanov is at the door and is inquiring about your well-being."

Sniffing, Penny said: "'M fine, FRIDAY."

"Penny," came Natasha's soft voice. "Did something happen?"

Penny didn't know how to respond. If she told Natasha what happened, everything would seem even more real. **_Why was this happening?_**

"Did you get your period, Penny?"

And that was what it was, wasn't it? But hearing Natasha say those words destroyed her. She had gotten her period. Why had she gotten her period? It was wrong, wrong, wrong, so wrong, and -

"Pen, I'm just going to leave a box of pads outside the door. Ask FRIDAY if you want to talk to me."

After rubbing at her eyes, Penny asked, "FRIDAY, did Nat leave?"

"Yes, Penny."

Penny folded up a few pieces of toilet paper, stuck it in her underwear, and went to take the box, her heart thumping as she came to terms with what was happening. She began crying again as she put on a pad, hating the fact that she had to.

Turning the faucet on, Penny stared at her reflection, and immediately turned away. It was awful. She hated it. She hated the soft curve of her cheeks, the way her hair blossomed around her head. She hated the long lashes and the tiny button-nose.

As she was about to leave the bathroom, her gaze lingered on the pair of medical scissors in the cabinet. What would her father say? What would the team say? What would her classmates say? Honestly, fuck all of that, Penny thought, and she took the pair of scissors, and cut.

Snip, snip, snip, went her hair, into the garbage can below the sink. Snip, snip, snip, cutting her hair down to her shoulders. With each cut, it felt as though a small weight was being lifted off her back. The hair was incredibly uneven, and Penny was about to cut more, when there was a knock at the door.

"What?" Penny asked, angry at being interrupted.

"FRIDAY told me you were cutting your hair. I'm good at that. Can I help you?" It was Nat.

After weighing the pros and cons, Penny decided that it would be worth having an even haircut, and she opened the door to find Natasha holding a razor.

Natasha pinned parts of Penny's hair up, cut a section here, a section there, and eventually starting buzzing. 

The process took much longer than Penny would have liked, but it was definitely worth it. The hair on the back of her head and behind her ears was buzzed close to her skin, and Natasha had left her bangs that reached down to her eyes.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Penny screamed, throwing herself at Natasha. "It's perfect. I love it so much."

And she did, love it. She couldn't stop staring at her reflection, couldn't stop admiring the masculine cut, couldn't stop brushing her fingers along the back of her scalp and feeling so little. She loved it so much that she had completely forgotten about her issue until a particularly bad cramp struck her.

Penny groaned and clutched her abdomen, still refusing to tear her gaze from the mirror.

There was a knock at the door.

"Can I come in?" Asked Tony.

"Did you tell him what happened?" Penny asked, rotating her head. 

"No, I just told him that you were fine. You should take a shower now, clean all of the hair off of you."

Penny wasn't exactly looking to see her body right now, but it was the preferable option to facing her father, so she nodded.

"I'm going to shower now, Dad, I'll talk to you later!" She called out, and Natasha left the bathroom.

Once in the shower, Penny shut her eyes tightly, making sure not to look down or to glance in the mirrors. As she massaged the shampoo into her head, she felt tears forming in her eyes. There was so little hair. _There was so little hair._

Penny couldn't remember feeling this happy in a long time, and she didn't think that it was possible for her to ever feel this happy again. Her heart fluttered with pure euphoria, and she focused on washing the stray hairs away.

Eventually, she left the shower, threw on her clothes and her baggy sweater, and stared at herself in the mirror for a few minutes, in order to summon up the courage to face her father.

Cracking open the door, Penny found Tony waiting for her, tapping his foot anxiously, and his face lit up when he saw her.

"Hey, Pen, you really gave me a scare there."

"Sorry," Penny muttered, suddenly finding that the name Penny left a sour taste in her mouth. 

"I like your haircut," Tony said. "It frames your face well."

Penny grinned. "Really? I love it. It's my favorite thing in the entire world. I don't know how I lived with long hair before."

Penny's enthusiasm was contagious, and Tony was soon grinning along with her. 

"So, what happened back there?"

Penny's face fell. "What do you mean?"

Extending his arms, Tony pulled Penny into a hug, resting his chin on her head and kissing her forehead softly. "Why did you disappear in the middle of dinner, bambina?"

Sniffling slightly, Penny adjusted the position of her head, so that it was lying on Tony's shoulder. She didn't want to say it. She _really_ didn't want to say it. But she also didn't want her father to worry.

"I got my..." Penny trailed off, and Tony got the gist, running his fingers through her hair.

"Can I get you anything?" He asked, and Penny shook her head.

"...Dad?" She asked timidly after a brief, comfortable silence.

"Yeah, hon?"

"I don't... I think that something's wrong with me."

"What do you mean, baby?"

"I don't even know!" Penny exclaimed, wiping her eyes furiously as some stubborn tears leaked out. "I just - everything feels wrong. My - my - my body, and my name, and who I even am. It doesn't feel right, and I don't understand it!" Penny started sobbing into her father's shoulder.

Tony thought for a second before responding. "Do you think that maybe your gender is what feels wrong?"

Penny immediately sat up straight, staring at Tony. "C-Could it?"

"Yeah, Pen. Do you think that maybe you're a boy? Or you could be somewhere in between, or neither at all?"

Penny let the words sink in for a moment. A boy. A boy. Something about that felt so incredibly right...

"Maybe I'm a boy," Penny whispered. "Can I? I don't know..."

"Hey, kid, you don't have to figure everything out at once, okay? When I was eleven, I had my first crush on a guy, and then when I was fourteen, I had my first crush on a girl. I didn't understand myself for a while, but one day, when Rhodey told me the word 'bisexual,' everything made sense. That took me a really long time. And understanding your gender is even more confusing and can take even longer, baby, okay?" Penny nodded.

"What's the word for if I-I was a boy?"

"Then you would be transgender, kiddo."

Something about that word made Penny's stomach flip in the best way possible. "Can you tell me more about it?"

"I'm not an expert, but I have a good friend who is. Hey, FRI, can you pull up a Google search on transgender males?"

Penny rolled her eyes. "Wow, Google is your friend? That's kind of sad, Dad."

Tony stuck his tongue out at her, and Penny began sorting through the holographic websites that FRIDAY had pulled up. The more she read, the more excited she got, and Tony was there with her every step of the way.

"Can... can I try he/him pronouns?" Penny asked, his heart fluttering at the very thought of doing so. "And - and could you try calling me your son? And 'bambino' instead of 'bambina?'"

Tony grinned down at his kid. "Of course, bud."

Penny threw himself at his father, hugging him tightly. 

\--

Over the next few days, whenever the pair was alone, Tony would refer to Penny using masculine terms and pronouns. While it was a bit strange at first, Penny gradually adjusted, and his heart began to fall whenever someone didn't use those pronouns.

"Peter," he said one day, out of the blue. "Peter Benjamin Stark."

Tony glanced over at his son. "Okay, Pete. That's a lovely name."

\--

Peter was fed up with being misgendered by the team, so he decided that he had to come out. Tony had reassured him countless times that everyone loved him more than anything, and that they would be accepting, but he was still full of butterflies one fateful Sunday.

He had heard of people coming out with cakes, but Peter wasn't such a fan of cake, so he decided to bake sugar cookies instead. Once the dough was chilled, Peter seperated it into three sections, keeping one pale-colored, dying one light blue, and the final one light pink.

It was painstaking to roll out each color, cut out a rectangle, and fit the tiny rectangles together, but Peter eventually finished up all of the dough, and around dinner time, the final batch came out of the oven. Grabbing the food-safe markers, Peter wrote small 'he/him's in the white rectangle of each cookie.

Dinner was awful. All he could think about was the tray of cookies and how the team would react to seeing them. When dessert arrived and Tony brought out the tray, Peter bolted away to his room. He couldn't be with them when they found out.

\--

"Huh?" Clint asked when he saw the cookies, but Tony was preoccupied on the fact that his distressed son had just run away.

"Oh, these are from Pete. My son."

The entire table 'ahh'ed in understanding, and most of them reached for a cookie.

"So, what is his name?" Natasha asked. 

"Peter Benjamin Stark."

"And he/him pronouns?" Sam asked, gesturing to the cookie.

"Yep. I'm going to go check on him. You guys should probably text him that you're cool with it or whatever, because I can basically feel him freaking out from here."

\--

That night, while cuddling with his father, Peter got several text messages:

 **mama spider:** would you like to go shopping for some new clothes with me, peter?

 **uncle america:** your cookies were delicious, peter, thank you for telling us.

 **metal arm dude:** please give me that cookie recipe pete. also join the non-cis/het club! dont tell anyone but stevie and i are dating ;)

 **uncle green bean:** i'm proud of you, peter. if you choose to wear a binder, make sure that you don't hurt your ribs!

 **witchy witchy woo:** ily pete <3

 **realish bird uncle:** it takes a lot of courage to come out, peter, thank you for telling us. im always here to talk if you want to

 **fakeass bird uncle:** my oldest, lila, is nonbinary, and they're around your age. i'm sure she'd love to hang out with you, if you'd want to :-)

 **boss lady:** i love you so much, peter <3 <3 <3

 **ant-dude:** hey, join the club, man! im trans too!!

 **literally a god:** CONGRATULATIONS YOUNG STARKSON

Peter grinned as he thanked everyone. He loved his family.

**Author's Note:**

> hey, fun fact: i came out the same way as peter! im actually nonbinary and i use they/them, not he/him, but other than the flag colors and pronouns, this was largely based off of my experience.
> 
> (my family is much smaller than the avengers, but they were also pretty chill about it. i wasn't too worried because my brother is trans too, but im also really bad at confrontation and i did the exact same thing that peter did here lol. the only difference was that my family doesn't have family dinners, so i didn't have to worry about that bit, i just told my parent they could look at what i had made and then ran away to my room fshfajfhas)
> 
> ALSO I ALWAYS WRITE LILA AS USING SHE/THEY PRONOUNS AND I HAVE NO FUCKING CLUE WHY. i dont think ive posted anything with her in it, maybe my twitter fic actually, but my point is that i headcanon that for some reason. im literally unable to not write it. idk man


End file.
